FILEnetworks Blog: Settlers 7 Paths To A Kingdom Random Freezes & Crashes

Here’s a quick update on a very common problem many gamers seem to be having when playing recently released Settlers 7. According to several emails we’ve got, some players are experiencing freezes at regular intervals which makes the entire game play experience really frustrating. Since a lot of people who were getting the freezing issues were using a pirated version of the game, it was initially thought as a blunder made by the cracking group when trying to remove the DRM. However, this does not seem to be the case – according to feedback we received from several users who actually purchased the game, the freezes are present in legitimate version as well.

Autosave is bugged in v1.2 and below?

It appears that the game’s autosave functionality is broken in some way in Settlers v1.2 and previous builds and temporarily hangs when it tries to autosave - hence the freezes. For those who purchased the game legitimately, there is a very simple fix for this annoying issue - install patch 1.3. Patch 1.3 fixes the autosave functionality along with a host of other improvements which according to release notes should minimize other types crashes associated with the game as well. Of course, publishers have managed not to acknowledge the freezing/pausing issue directly in release notes and avoided using the word ‘freezing’ anywhere. (‘instead they’ve masked it as ‘rare crashes of the auto save function’). Quoted below are some of the bug fixes in v1.3:

Fixed rare crashes of the auto save function
Fixed a bug with the screen mode detection that prevented the game from starting
Fixed failure to unlock next campaign map
Various client side networking fixes
Various server side networking fixes
Various UI fixes
Fixes for Russian localization
Streets beneath bridges are no longer visible
Fixed inaccessible resource piles
Fixed rare failure to destroy and rebuild work yards in the vicinity of streets
Fixed bug with a street that was build into the terrain

Download

[Click Here] to download Settlers 7 paths to a kingdom 1.03 patch from Softpedia

Note: If you are using a pirated copy of the game, the above method will not work. You will either have to wait for a updated v1.03 fix from whatever release group (if any) that’ll pre it or simply buy the game and go legit.

How to improve visual quality & graphics appearance in Settlers 7?

Although unrelated to the freezes, we’ve received comments from folks who trash the game for ‘looking like shit’. Try tweaking with the following settings and see if it improves the visual quality – after changing every setting make sure to save configuration, exit the game and re launch so the changes are properly applied.

Disable in game Anti Aliasing (AA). Additionally, disable AA if you have forced it from your VGA’s control panel. Try this and restarting the game first (before you move on to other fixes).
Set ‘No’ Upscaling
Disable depth of field.
Update your video card’s drivers – if latest drivers do not work, try downloading and installing latest beta drivers (do this at your own risk).
ATI Drivers: Download the latest ATI Catalyst drivers from this link: http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx
NVIDIA Drivers: Download latest official NVIDIA drivers from this link: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
Beta Drivers: Check here http://downloads.guru3d.com/

And as usual, update your DirectX to the latest monthly runtime before you do anything. Windows XP users may grab the latest runtime from here.

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